


We will see each other again next year

by BokhandlarnEmilie



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/F, F/M, Fanatical Fam's Holiday Fic Exchange 2020, Podcast: Fanatical Fics and Where to Find Them, Post-Hogwarts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-21
Updated: 2020-12-21
Packaged: 2021-03-11 01:41:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,548
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28217121
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BokhandlarnEmilie/pseuds/BokhandlarnEmilie
Summary: Millicent Bulstrode was not sure what to expect after the fall of Voldermort. It just wasn't this. Going out in the snow storm to think and run some errands, she runs into some of her classmates and spends the evening in a way she never could have imagined.This story is part of a Holiday Fic Exchange for the Fanatical Fics and where to find them Discord. This fic is gifted to our Illoustrious Minister and Slytherin Prefect Swishy. I hope you like it, loads of love from the Magical Healer Bad-Ass BitchWitch and co-prefect in crime, Emilie
Comments: 4
Kudos: 4
Collections: Fanatical Fam's: Holiday Fic Exchange





	We will see each other again next year

**Author's Note:**

  * For [swishyclang](https://archiveofourown.org/users/swishyclang/gifts).



Life after Voldermort’s second and final fall was supposed to be easy. Those who opposed his regime had won and those who had supported him could quietly slip back into their regular lives and talk themselves out of being prosecuted, just like last time. But this was not like last time. It had been three years and the air was still as heavy as it was right after the war. People were tired. People tried to forgive or forget. People tried to heal. But it was not easy. 

As she looked outside the window of her home contemplating this, Millicent Bulstrode was not sure whether or not she cared. She knew people would be scared and unhappy if the Dark Lord had won. She knew she would be privileged by association for being a Slytherin. But she had not expected him to be defeated and the world turning out like this. People were not happy. They were tired and traumatized.

No matter the outcome Millicent was always the lonely one. The one people found too big to be around. Too unresponsive, too unfeminine (what even that means. Over 7 billion people on the planet and yet people are expected to neatly fit into two categories? Okay sure…). Life had improved a little bit since she got hearing aids and had started introducing Wixen Sign Language to the general population. Immediately after graduating Hogwarts, she went to the broken Ministry of Magic and while they were at their most vulnerable, told them about the need for accessibility programs in the magical community. They gave her a small grant and a team, including the boy Neville Longbottom who had lost a leg during the war after constantly being at the front like those other obnoxious Gryffindors. 

Although she took pride in what she had accomplished, she also knew that it was partly thanks to that other Gryffindor Hermione Granger, who right after the fall of the Dark Lord and before everyone had finished patting themselves on the back, had stood up and said “Hold on. Our system helped make Voldermort and those like him powerful. Just because he is defeated does not mean there is not plenty of work left to be done to truly create a just society”.

~~~

The snow started falling outside and Millicent just wanted to sit down and eat supper before going to bed. Nothing else. But her parents insisted that she helped decorate the house for the holidays, so she quickly grabbed the task that required her to exit the house and go purchase some stuff. Anything to not see them start dancing to some bad holiday music in front of her while making all the ornaments float along in tune to the music before neatly taking their place up on the tree. 

It felt good to be out of the house. The snow gave a crunching sound under her feet but was slowly becoming soft as she continued walking. She had not counted for the heavy snowfall. Despite this quite underestimation of how quickly the inches of snow on the ground would increase, she apparated to Hogsmeade believing things would be open as usual. She started with the most obvious choice: the candy store.

After spending nearly thirty minutes inside Honeydukes, Millicent could finally cross one item off the list. She had bought a bag of newly advertised holiday candy that when you eat it will make you burst into cheery holiday songs and if you are lucky (?) a kick ass tap number. She put the bag of candy in her backpack and glanced at her list for another thing to purchase. However, when she looked up, she noticed that she could barely see past a few meters in front of her. Everything was white. The snowstorm was getting harsher for every second and she saw how all the open signs of the stores magically turned to close before her eyes. Great. She had absolutely no intentions of becoming a snowman today. Some place must still be open where she could wait out the storm. Some place… Like the Hog’s head. Millicent hurried over there before that open sign could turn to closed like the rest.  
When she opened the door, she was immediately greeted by a goat. The pub looked different, not its usual gloomy self but cheery… holiday-esque. The décor had plenty of red and green and the fire felt inviting with a lot of socks next to it, all with faces of Dobby the House elf. Fake reindeer antlers were hanging on the walls with ornaments decorated around them. The portrait of Ariana had changed her clothes into a cute red dress with some white candles on them. The air smelled of mulled wine, saffron buns and gingerbread. 

Millicent brushed off the snow from her coat and hair, careful not to hit the goat and saw that they too had some ornaments on them. She gave the goat a quick pat on the head and looked up to see the owner Aberforth sulking in the corner. He was wearing a knitted holiday sweater with the text “Spread your holiday cheer” over his robes. She tried to suppress a laugh. 

“Don’t laugh at me. It’s a spell from my competitor over at the Three Broomsticks. I went to get some water and came back to this travesty of a pub! I have tried every spell known to get these decorations to go away but apparently, they are here to stay. Including these sweaters. Everyone who enters the premises must wear one”. She looked down and saw that she too was wearing a knitted holiday sweater over her robes. It was dark blue with white snowflakes and a reindeer in the middle. The text said, “Oh deer what a year!” Even though it was quite ugly, she couldn’t help but chuckle. 

The pub was quite empty, but Millicent still felt the need to look around the room for an empty place away from people. It was not easy since not only did she discover that most patrons had done the same thing and spread out, it was former Hogwarts students. They looked up at the same time and met her eyes, she felt shy and immediately headed for the bathroom. 

Once in there, she could finally breathe out and appreciate the solitude. She quickly bent down to splash her face with some water, however, when she looked up, the mirror showed an outline of someone else standing behind her. Millicent was about to let out a scream when she started to recognize the person.  
“Myrtle?”  
“Ah, yes, that is indeed me… But I guess my presence here is not welcomed and I am forced to forever celebrate my holidays in the toilets at Hogwarts. No matter how lonely it is…”  
“No… That was not what I meant at all you just startled me you… Wait… You know Wixen Sign Language?”  
Millicent realized that as Myrtle spoke, her hands had been moving to form perfect sentences along with the spoken words.  
“Again… It is not that much to do roaming around the halls of Hogwarts being forever teased by new groups of students for almost sixty years”. She looked down and tried to move her foot sideways to remove some dirt on the floor. The dirt stayed where it was.  
“You know Myrtle. I am not dead, but I do feel like we have a lot in common sometimes.”  
Myrtle looked up.  
“Oh really… Do you also get teased by Peeves every day?”  
“Yes!”  
“Yes?”  
Myrtle suddenly relaxed. “Okay then. Don’t you just hate it when he rhymes? He is so bad at it, but he thinks –”  
“– He’s a genius!” they both said at the same time and laughed. 

~~~

After having spent around 20 minutes in the bathroom, Millicent felt her energy being renewed and was ready to go outside to the pub area and have a drink of mulled wine. She found a table in the corner and started looking around to see who else had made it out on this snowy day. 

Next to the fire, she saw Harry Potter and Ginny Weasley whispering together, and on the opposite side of the room, a table with Lavender Brown and Parvati Patil holding hands. Lavender was wearing a dark red sweater with half of a holiday tree on it. Millicent later discovered that Parvati was wearing an identical sweater but with the other half of the tree. Sitting like that together created one completed tree. It looked cute. In another corner sat Neville alone, nodding along to music that was not playing. Cho Chang just entered the pub and exchanged some words with Aberforth. 

And there they all sat, at different tables, not knowing how much they should acknowledge each other. Millicent felt particularly stared at for some reason. She looked behind her and saw that Myrtle had followed her out of the bathroom. When Myrtle noticed she sighed and said:  
“Oh. I guess you didn’t want me here for your festivities. I’ll go back”  
“No, please, Myrtle, you just startled me that’s all. Please sit here with me”. Myrtle smiled and sat back down in her chair. 

The two of them continued to talk for a while, mostly about all people at Hogwarts who had been rude to the, when Neville carefully went up from his seat. Everyone stopped talking and watched as he walked towards the piano in the corner. He tried to play a few notes until he gave up and did a spell to make the piano play the notes itself. He started mumbling “Oh the weather outside is frightful, but the fire is so delightful, since we have no place to go, let it snow, let it snow, let it snow”  
Everyone looked up and gave an exasperated “NEVILLE!”  
They all looked at each other and started to laugh.  
“What? I… I thought it was fitting to the situation”

No one was sure how it had happened, but after Neville’s song, they all found themselves getting closer and closer to each other’s tables, until they were all sitting together at the same one, talking, laughing, catching up. Millicent found out that Harry and Ginny are expecting their first child and are unsure as to how to be good parents when Harry himself had had a complicated relationship with parental figures. Lavender and Parvati had just gotten engaged and had to deal with various reactions to Lavenders condition as a werewolf. Millicent did not know that Lavender was a werewolf and quickly searched for the nearest exit before she realized that she must still be the same old Lavender she went to school with. 

Aberforth had been drinking a bit too much and decided to join them. He confessed that he actually loved to hate the holidays and was secretly glad he could not get the decorations to go away. And Cho. She said she had gone to therapy since she graduated and had been getting a lot of help dealing with her depression and loss. She realized she had had genuine feelings for both Cedric and Harry, but that they were more platonic and that she in fact is not interested in dating at all. Realizing this had given her a lot of time to focus on herself and her goals in life. Neville said he had realized the same and they spent the evening talking about their favorite areas of magic and how they both really enjoyed teaching and hoped to one day be employed as teachers at Hogwarts.  
“Oh Cho, I’ve been meaning to tell you…” Neville said and started blushing. “I… I know what happened to you during the war and…”  
“Neville it’s okay, I am not ashamed of it. I lost my arm. It happens, it was a war. And I know you lost your leg”  
He looked up.  
“You do?”  
“Yes! You were being very brave and spent almost the entire battle at the front!”  
“So, I have been working with plants as you know, and I think I have come across something great. A plant that helps a lot with amputees in terms of phantom pain and general mobility.”  
They both decided to start meeting up regularly to both hang out as friends and to exchange experiences having experiences loss of people and disability after the war.

~~~

The door opened again and in came the most gorgeous woman Millicent had ever seen. Pansy Parkinson… She knew Pansy had just become single after she realized that the person she was dating was not for her. Millicent found herself blushing at the thought. She had been crushing on Pansy since the first time they made eye contact and Pansy did not look like she had a permanently bad smell stuck in her nose. She had also secretly agreed with Pansy when she suggested that they handed over Harry to the Dark Lord. Not because she wanted him to win, but because she thought he already had and wanted as many lives to be spared as possible.  
She wanted to tell Pansy that, but instead she gave out a shy “hi” as Pansy sat down next to her. Pansy looked up, smiled and started talking.  
“Oh, hi Millicent! I recognized you right away! It’s been so long! Wixen Sign Language is AMAZING! I have a cousin that is hard of hearing and we are communicating like never before! We simply must get a drink sometimes so you can tell me more about your program! As you probably know I’m the editor for the most fashionable wixen magazine in existence, Yes Glitter– ”  
“I read that!” Millicent interrupted exited.  
“Of course you do, silly, everyone reads it! Anyway, we’ve been talking about the need to make the spreads easier to read and more accessible, because EVERYONE should be able to take part of the grandeur that is our fashion. I’m thinking text readers and zoom in options and loads of other ideas! What do you say, should we get together and discuss it?”  
Millicent turned so red; all she could do was nod. Pansy didn’t notice but slipped a business card into her hand and continued talking to the other people around the table for a while. 

The piano once again started to play a tune and they all felt a very warm feeling in their bellies. A feeling many of them hadn’t felt in a long time. Aberforth suddenly started to murmur:  
“Oh, the weather outside is frightful… But the fire is sooooooooooo delightful, since we have no place to go”  
Everyone joined in “Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow”

~~~

Eventually the snow fall stopped. They all realized that it was time to leave and continue living, because life went on. But something felt different, their lives were different. Changed. Each of them reluctantly removed their holiday sweaters and put on their winter coats. Aberforth got out the magical brooms to start the cleaning. 

Before each of them walked out the front door and headed their separate ways, Neville said:  
“You know what… I think I might need another round next year…”  
The rest of them nodded.  
“Yes” they agreed. “We will see each other again… Next year”

And they all believed it.


End file.
